Firefox is the recommended browser, but the Kurzweil Read The Web feature must be updated manually whenever a new Firefox update is installed.

In 64-bit environments, the Taskbar Updater and Kurzweil Virtual Printer must be installed separately (in addition to the main Kurzweil program). Download links for these tools are provided from the above link.

Patrick Burke gave an update on the new UC-wide Electronic Accessibility Leadership Team (E-ALT), and Heather Wozniak demonstrated WebAIM’s WAVE Toolbar, a free tool for evaluating the accessibility of your websites. You can use WAVE online or download the Firefox toolbar from wave.webaim.org.

This is a thorough survey of the topic, with many links to examples, legal references, and further resources.

On a few points it seems to me to set a high standard for federal agencies.:

Captioning must be provided for live video (such as live speeches);

Audiodescription as well as captioning must be included where necessary;

The accessibility rules apply to agencies posting material to public websites (Youtube etc.) “Many agencies have found that a practical approach to providing accessible content is to post videos and presentations
on these sites and also post the same content, in an accessible manner, on their own agency sites.”

These points have been “gray areas” in the past. For example, captioning of live video gets a lower priority rating in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. However, the USA.gov document stresses the affirmative need for access on all three of the above issues.

Posted in Web Accessibility | Comments Off on USA.gov Guidance On Access To Multimedia